The Great Western Railway and the Celebration of Englishness

THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY AND THE CELEBRATION OF ENGLISHNESS D.Phil. RAILWAY STUDIES I.R.S. OCTOBER 2000 THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY AND THE CELEBRATION OF ENGLISHNESS ALAN DAVID BENNETT M.A. D.Phil. RAILWAY STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF YORK INSTITUTE OF RAILWAY STUDIES OCTOBER 2000 ABSTRACT This thesis identifies the literary work of the Great Western Railway as marking a significant contribution to the discourse of cultural representation over the first four decades of the twentieth century and particularly so for the inter-war era. The company's work is considered in the context of definitive and invariably complex cultural perspectives of its day, as mediated through the examination of the primary literature, company works and other related sources, together with the historiographical focus of latter- day analysis. G.W.R. literary perspectives - historical, political, commercial-industrial and aesthetic - are thus compared and contrasted with both rival and convergent representations and contextualised within the process of historical development and ideolog- ical differentiations. Within this perspective of inter-war society, the G.W.R. literature is considered according to four principal themes: the rural-traditional representation and related historical-cultural identification in the perceived sense of inheritance and providential mis- sion; the company's extensive industrial interests, wherein regional, national and international perspectives engaged a commercial-cultural construction of Empire; the 'Ocean Coast' imagery - the cultural formulation of the seashore in terms of a taxonomy of landscapes and resorts according to the structural principles of protocol, expectation and clientele and, finally, that of Anglo-Saxon-Celtic cultural characterisations with its agenda of ethnicity and gender, central in the context of this work to the definition of Englishness and community. This thematic structure directly engages the then, as now, controversial discussion of the properties of past and present, continuity and change and urban and rural identifications. In also engaging the wider and necessary themes of the cultural history of railways generally, of place marketing and of the nature and principles of nationalism in the construction of cultural identity, this thesis locates the literary work of the G.W.R. in an historical, cultural context that contributes to ongoing discussion of the character and definition of Englishness. CONTENTS Introduction CHAPTER ONE IMAGERY AND ENTERPRISE page 1 CHAPTER TWO INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS page 30 CHAPTER THREE LANDSCAPE, LITERATURE AND STYLISTIC DIFFERENTIALS: THE WYE VALLEY AND THE COTSWOLDS page 49 CHAPTER FOUR THE CELTIC SUBLIME page 76 CHAPTER FIVE ANGLO-AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES page 110 CHAPTER SIX THE OCEAN COAST page 145 CHAPTER SEVEN SOUTHERN RAILWAY PERSPECTIVES page 174 CHAPTER EIGHT SOMERSEST: THE COUNTY CONCEPT page 212 Conclusion page 237 Bibliography page 242 i Introduction This work examines the extensive literature produced by the Great Western Railway over the first forty years of the twentieth century, with particular reference to the inter-war era when the output was most prolific and the content and style at its most challenging and dynamic. The thesis contributes to several debates in the field of cultural history, more particularly those about railways and notions of Englishness, name- ly: the cultural history of railways, the role of place marketing, the cultural construction of Englishness in terms of representations of landscape and identity and historical-cultural considerations of nationalism and ethnicity. Michael Freeman has recently called for historians to situate their railway research "within the wider cultural frame of which it is indissoluably part'..." and of their need to locate work "more clearly within their cultural milieux [and] to think more carefully about the intellectual frame within which their studies are cast."2 Freeman's own work, 'Railways and the Victorian Imagination', 1999, 3 in line with earlier studies addressing the cultural theme - Wolfgang Schivelbusch, 1977, 4 the even earlier work by Harold Perkin, 197O5 or Jack Simmons, 1991 6 - focused on the long nineteenth century and to 1914. The thematic focus is, perhaps, summarised by Nicholas Faith: "The modern world began with the coming of the railway. They turned the known universe upside- down. They made a greater and more immediate impact than any other mechanical or industrial innovation before or since."7 Freeman notes the dearth of literature on the twentieth century. 8 An exception is J. Richards and J.M. MacKenzie's 'The Railway Station: a social history', 1986,9 a study of great range which engages with the inter-war and post-1945 periods. But generally ii works on the cultural history of railways in the inter-war era are conspicuous by their absence. This thesis addresses that theme in an analysis of the substantive works of the Great Western and, in counterpoint, those of the Southern Railway. The subject has not been entirely neglected. Roger Burdett Wilson's 'Go Great Western. A History of G.W.R. Publicity' 1970 10 offers an anthology of the literature, poster work and miscel- laneous promotory materials produced by the company but there is no discussion of content nor of any thematic development of cross-company comparisons in content, style or of general cultural contextualisation of railway and society. Other studies have attempted this in a different context. Alan R. Jackson, 1973/1991 11 for example, identifies the railways as central to the development of [the character, structure and style] suburban lifestyle. In so doing, Jackson correlates the wider cultural history of railways with that of place marketing, a factor emphasised by John Beckerson.12 Place marketing is integral within this historiographical perspective. Stephen Ward identifies this concept as "a broad entrepreneurial ethos or ideology" 13 that effectively synchronises the commercial and cultural representations of locations, regions, people, experiences and events. This process relates directly to the G.W.R.'s practices. Looking particularly at tourism, the place marketing principle is reflected in the company's identification of cultural themes and the process of social differentiation that defined them. For example, the railway created a taxonomy of resorts, historical sites and landscape. This is expressed in terms of 'English' and 'Celtic' representations which are only com- prehensible by reference to the particular locations and the related ensemble of received cultural, political and idealogical identifications, expectations and protocol; to the essen- tial social and cultural differentiations that defined them. 14 John Urry's work on the objects of the tourist gaze and the "variety of discourses" 15 therein is significant here, but will be considered below. iii Stephen Ward's 'Selling Places', has included the railway companies' contributions to place marketing, identifying the differentiated status and character of the holiday resort in a broad national and international context. He has also dealt with the railways' initiatives in terms of suburban development and industrial interests. But railway- focused place marketing has not been extensively or systematically analysed. In particular, no-one has carried out a detailed study of a specific railway company such as this one of the G.W.R. It is needed because, until the Second World War, the railways were the major providers of inland transport over any but the shortest of distances and, hence, one of the most significant institutions to be involved in place marketing. The G.W.R. was one of the most important and enterprising of the railway companies. Its record also serves as a basis for comparison and contrast with other railway companies, other forms of transport and, indeed, for comparative studies of other countries and their relative achievements - although these tasks are not attempted here. Some idea of the G.W.R.'s importance may be had from its role in the Travel Association of Great Britain. Beckerson argues that the 'Come To Britain Movement', dating from 1926, 16 and, later, reformulated as 'The Travel Association of Great Britain and Ireland' was "one of the first groups to draw attention to the economic benefits of foreign visitors to the U.K.... It was a key plank in the strategy of the Travel Association." 17 The role of the railway companies and, specifically, the contribution of the G.W.R., in developing the potential of the Travel Association through innovative marketing, was considerable and should be noted. Felix Pole was the only general man- ager from the four railway companies to attend the first meeting of the provisional com- mittee of the Travel Association on 26 February 1929. 18 The company, for example, played a prominent role in the campaign for fiscal reform in terms of prohibitive taxes on visitors to Britain and advocated the extension of rateable levies, nationally and local- ly, to provide for increased tourist marketing and amenities.19 The Travel Association's efforts to encourage foreign tourists, particularly iv Americans, to visit Britain were directed at the impact of the historical-cultural experi- ence and encounter which was particularly celebrated in the G.W.R.'s literature. Place marketing identifies and develops various aspects of tourists' cultural experi- ence and expectations. In developing the notion of 'the tourist gaze', John Urry, for example, argues that tourists

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